I'm undecided and need a push. (Polaris X Blackgate)

[𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕚𝕕𝕠𝕟]

I want to go for big ships, and a like turrets. Current I have a Manticore.
So...
Polaris is a cool looking ship, and I want to name it, "Mr. Smiley", but Blackgate can have more turrets.
Blackgate looks is too meh for me. Too much "terran", or S.H.I.E.L.D flying aircraft carrier, whatever. Plus is slower.

BTW Mr. Developer, why the huge ships have less components slots? =/

[obliviondoll]

Polaris has a face.

A FACE!

That decided it for me.

[Ankido]

I just upgrade my Vanguard ship as much as I can. I can take down blackgates like their nothing. Until I find a ship that can defeat me, I'll always and forever have a Vanguard. 6 Broadside Ports, 6 turrets and Heavy Hull Class.

On the other hand, the Polaris does look good. The slow speed kinda makes me wonder. Maneuverability is average which is OK. I like the Broadside ports and turrets which are quite high. Hold Size I ignore. I could care less about cargo.

Now think about it. The Polaris is slow. That means you're a sitting duck with Heavy Hull. The Blackgate is very heavy and slow on both ends. You are probably better off with the Polaris.

In the end, I always choose the faster ships. I don't care about Turrets and Broadside ports. I'm a quick little sucker that takes out the enemies turrets, and nukes them. I'm really good at survival. Blackgate and Polaris to me is not better than the Vanguard. Only because of speed and maneuverability.

[GNO-SYS]

Currently flying an Arcturus and looking into a Polaris for an upgrade. The Vanguard is a nice ship for frontal assaults, and it has excellent cargo capacity, but its turret coverage is poor. With the larger ships, being able to hit enemies coming from any direction is more important than maneuverability. That said, I like to use ramming/close combat tactics, and the Polaris is the least sluggish dread with the big ram prow and decent component slots/cargo. It also looks freakin' cool.

[ImHelping]

I really like my Manticore and so far I've stuck with it because I didn't want something that was a bigger target/slower in exchange for more guns just yet.

Now that I finally have MK6 everything, I'm eying the Minotaur (Average/Average speed, 2 more broadsides and 1 more turret) because everything else with more firepower is even slower than the Manticore.

But my advice? Buy the ships, then sell them back if you don't like them. One of the nicer things about this game (As much as I ramble about it's flaws) is the 1:1 sellback pricing, so you can actually experiment and then go back to what you had if you didn't like it.

The hardest part will be filling out all those extra turret slots. Mk6 turrets cost between 2.1 million and 4.7 million, depending on if you are buying scatter turrets or particle beams.

RE component slots, the Manticore (Which I keep forgetting is a Destroyer, because of it's size) is basically a Utility ship. It also only has 6 broadsides, making it have the least broadsides of any destroyer, so that's making up for it.

The only ship in the game with 6 component slots is the McKinley Cruiser. The only other ship in the game with 5, is the Sorcerer Dreadnaught. 3 or 4 component slots is "normal"

[FreedomFighter]

Polaris got smugg face in front of ship. I don't like Polaris's turrets placement, it is just wonky. So i went with Blackgate instead.

[LupisVolk]

Anyone have a suggestion for a upgrade form a Arcturus?

[ImHelping]

Okay so my new favorite ship is the Minotaur. Oh my goodness.

It's sold at Mercenary stations. It is the "Fast" Destroyer, basically. Average/Average speed, but if feels like it turns much better than that, especially if you leave it at half throttle.

10 broadsides, 9 turrets, 4 secondary. Granted... It's several million credits more expensive than the Arcturus.

The only other options for comparative firepower are either Drednaughts which cost even more, or the Mckinley Cruiser which has +2 Broadsides, but -1 turret (and is even slower).

EDIT: And honestly, the real pricetag murder on Dreads is paying for all those extra turrets. Upgrading from the Manticore to the Minotaur for example? It cost me 4.1 million to get the ship, and 4.7 million for the extra MK6 beam turret (2.1 million if I went with a MK6 scatter).

So even if you saved up for a Blackgate, it'd cost you about 14 million minimum just to fill out those extra six turret mounts.

Anti Fighter Edit: Flak turrets and Swarm turrets vastly underperform at their job. If you want an "Anti fighter" gun, put a Scatter Turret or Pulse turret on your top rear most mount (or bottom, basically, put it on the back) and set it to "Fighter only"

A pulse turret won't constantly miss gunships like Flak shots will. And swarm turrets are slow firing, and run out of ammo fast in later game fights.

[obliviondoll]

I've found that a pair of swarm turrets set to "fighters only" almost never runs out of ammo in the late game. I've also found that while scatter turrets have no ammo concerns, they miss too often to be a reliable anti-fighter weapon until the fighters are in closer than they need to be for flak turrets. I definitely think flak turrets need a buff on fire rate or something else to make them viable, but I'd like to see a projectile speed buff on scatters as well (at least a little faster than pulse would be nice)

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by obliviondoll:

I've found that a pair of swarm turrets set to "fighters only" almost never runs out of ammo in the late game. I've also found that while scatter turrets have no ammo concerns, they miss too often to be a reliable anti-fighter weapon until the fighters are in closer than they need to be for flak turrets. I definitely think flak turrets need a buff on fire rate or something else to make them viable, but I'd like to see a projectile speed buff on scatters as well (at least a little faster than pulse would be nice)

A pair of swarm turrets means two turrets that can only shoot at fighters, which is a good chunk of firepower lost when on smaller ships. I tried that myself, as well as a single, and I DID run out of ammo on longer missions if ordanance crates were not being generous. (Later in the game, it loved spawning 90% gunships for me instead of weak fighters for many factions).

But regardless of ammo, it's their rate of fire that is the issue. When they fire, and hit, they deal a good chunk of damage. But a Scatter or pulse turret set to "Fighters only" has better overall DPS, as well as the ability to sweep up almost dead fighters quickly instead of needing to wait for a missile salvo to waste ammo overkilling it, if you are trusting your auto aim to do the job.

Flak turret is straight garbage that will miss slow moving gunships and then explode past where it can hurt them. At least Swarm missile turrets will do their job when they fire, even if I found I liked the results of setting a pulse turret on the top rear of my bigger ships to "Fighters only" much better.

Bonus: A pulse turret set to Fighters only, is allowed to be set to shoot capitol ships if you need it. Flak and Swarm missiles are useless vs even the smallest capitol ship.

Fake Edit: I am, admitedly, also viewing this from the mindset of someone who has had 5-9 Turrets tops. If you are flying something with double didgit turrets you can definitly splurge on swarm missiles.

I also find it hilarious that the Virax were easier to kill (both their fighters, and their capitol ships) than all the misc pirates and grell and mercienaries sent against me the rest of the game.

Unrelated PS: The Minotaur Destroyer is SO GOOD you guys, oh my god that turn speed. It's a destroyer still fast enough to track gunships with your broadsides, if your 9 turrets don't kill them by the time you full aim.

[obliviondoll]

Oh, I wouldn't use 2 swarms on a small ship - late game I tend to go for the heavier Destroyers and Dreads, where you have the firepower to spare. Also Swarms actually do pretty decent damage on capitals, I just prefer setting them fighter only because I don't like using the ammo on caps when I'd prefer it be sent against targets those weapons are better suited for.

[Xoraak]

i like the polaris in look WAAAY more than the blackgate.. but dem freaking 7 more Broadside ports

[𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕚𝕕𝕠𝕟]

I had to move to Blackgate. The turret placement of Polaris was not OK. I would rise the backend a bit so all 6 turrets could hit the target, and maybe set it on a V shape.
And the middle top turret is also blocked in the front and back.
Is silly to see them shooting the own ship. I know that is not damaging it.

But the Blackgate is a monster. Most of the turrets have a big line of view. And the spam of Pulse Cannon cut the enemy defenses like butter.

[Purple Sauce]

I got the black and stuck as many MK 5 pulse cannons as possible on it. Nothing can get near me that's not a capital ship anymore and I'm not even joking lol

Black is totally worth it just make sure you have at least level 5 engines and it's not that slow I can easily out run fighters if I have to (and I really don't I can kill 3 at a time with my broadside lasers from 7m away)

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by obliviondoll:

Oh, I wouldn't use 2 swarms on a small ship - late game I tend to go for the heavier Destroyers and Dreads, where you have the firepower to spare. Also Swarms actually do pretty decent damage on capitals, I just prefer setting them fighter only because I don't like using the ammo on caps when I'd prefer it be sent against targets those weapons are better suited for.

Really, Swarm turrets work on Capitol ships?

See what I get for trusting item descriptions.

As for Dreads and proper destroyers, half the reason I avoided them so long was wanting smaller sized ships (So Manticore was nice).

The other reason, having to pay for all those extra turrets. oh my goodness. Upgrading my Manticore to a Minotaur cost me 4.1 Million. Then 4.7 Million for the single MK6 Particle Beam I added.

If I got a Blackgate, putting MK6 scatter turrets in the empty slots would cost over twice as much as buying the blackgate itself from my Minotaur. (granted, beat the story anyways by now)

[PegasusJF]

I played the Polaris to the end, and it is a fine ship that could tear through just about everything. Manuverable too, and that is what sold me on her.